Today’s question, the 5th in our 7-question series is from Jonathan Fields. Tomorrow’s question, on spirituality is from me.

Question: What have I learned about living the creative life in 2011? And how will it change what and how I create moving forward?

I was somehow delivered into this life with the mad Jones to create, but not the ability to handle the process without a fair amount of anxiety. To do what I’m here to do, I figured, I’d have to suffer. But, I’ve now come to a different understanding. Action in the face of uncertainty is essential to creation. To life, really. How we experience that walk into the unknown is much more a matter of choice and practice. We can choose to frame and experience it not just as pain, but as elevation. It’s not easy, but the question isn’t whether it’s easy, it’s whether it’s worth the effort. I’m very much in the beginning of this learning, but so far, the reward has far outpaced the effort. So, as we move into a new year, what would you venture to create if you felt equipped to handle whatever the process brought you? –Jonathan Fields

Feel free to post your thoughts below or on our FB page where you can also read others’ (wonderful) answers.

I have a lot of thoughts about creativity and meditation. Check the video for my little riff and also for meditation instruction. Please sign up for The Open Heart Project for ongoing meditation instruction.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Dec 26: Patti Digh On Bendiness
Dec 27 Ken Robert On Shadows
Dec 28 Andrew Mellen On Becoming Organized
Dec 29 Jen Louden On Service
Dec 30 Jonathan Fields On Creativity
Dec 31 Susan Piver On Spirituality
Jan 1 Seth Godin On Becoming an Artist

We Are All Weird
The Myth of Mass and the End of Compliance
By Seth Godin

I must begin this rare book review (I don’t think I’ve ever reviewed a book on my blog?) with a disclaimer: I love Seth Godin. I think he is one of the smartest, coolest, most generous people ever, EVER. Naturally I’m predisposed to like his newest book, so let me get the formalities out of the way and say: YES I DO.

After reading a few pages I wasn’t sure if Weird was about how to become a better business person or a better person-person. Sure, I was learning about shifts in the marketplace and the way the digital revolution is changing the culture of art and commerce. But at the same time I was noticing my faith in myself expand as well as my enthusiasm about opportunities in the marketplace and, well, for humanity in general. How many business books do that? And how many self-help books talk to you about commerce as a proving ground for your humanity?

Then I remembered that it was Seth and he does not distinguish between these things, which puts him pretty much in a category by himself. So although on one level, this book is about shifts in marketing, it’s really a compassionate argument for why you could have confidence in yourself and our world.

Now that’s my kind of “business book.”

Until recently, Seth points out, the world of marketing was founded on the principle of en masse. The larger our corporations became, the more customers they required to support them. The more customers they required, the less specifically the product could appeal. And, beyond pushing a product that appealed to the lowest common denominator, to get you to pull (i.e. buy it), marketing strategies were simply propaganda designed to make you believe you needed it.

Enter the great equalizer, the internet, and one of its most heartening manifestations: communities of interest based on, well, interests. The internet has provided us with a platform to navigate beyond propaganda and instead connect with each other around what moves us, inspires us, and delights us. These connections are fast becoming our motivation for consuming, creating, joining, using, paying.

Giant advertising vehicles (television, magazines, celebrity endorsements) were the power source for getting you to buy. Now however, the locus of power is shifting to you, your community, your tribe, and what delights you most. The role of purveyors is to sell you what you want, not what they have. Additionally, the purveyors themselves are shrinking or disappearing. In one of the greatest changes of all, the book points out, we are becoming our own content creators, product manufacturers, and service providers. And the basis for this new marketplace? Not market research. Not bottom line freakouts. Not IPOs or strategic alliances. Rather, it is art, creativity, and the joy of making stuff.

We Are All Weird posits this as a shift of tremendous consequence and I agree. Someone once described the difference between entertainment and art in this way: entertainment begins with the customer and then works its way back to create the offering that will please the most people. Art begins with itself. It is created from the inspiration, longing, and brilliance of the artist and then works its way forward to those who want it most. Or not. It exists for its own sake.

We Are All Weird signals the end of the Age of Entertainment and, hallelujah, the opening days of the Age of Art. Thank you Seth, for saying this all so sharply and kindly.

For more on We Are All Weird, go here.

For more on Seth, go here.

To subscribe to his super cool blog, check this.

And it was fun! Click the image for an audio recording of the 28-min interview.

I love me some Jen Louden. She is devoted, generous, smart, funny, and has a fantastic haircut. What’s not to love? Oh yes, she also wants to help everyone in the world become who they’re really meant to be and thereby save the planet. A mission I wholly admire.

She interviewed me for her Savor & Serve project and you can read it here:

Together with Patti Digh, we’re teaching a writing and creativity workshop in Boston Sept 23-24, Walking Into Fire: Sidestepping Fear, Writing Your Heart Out, and Letting Your Story Tell Itself.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click on the video to check out our thoughts and also to get a taste of the flavor of our upcoming workshop in Boston, Walking Into Fire: Sidestepping Fear, Writing Your Heart Out, and Letting Your Story Tell Itself. We’ll share our best writing tips, answer your questions, teach you some techniques for getting words onto the page, and spend some time together writing. It all happens September 23 & 24.

Conversation with Jennifer Louden from susan piver on Vimeo.

Wherein we touch on her fantastic new initiative, Savor & Serve, writing, creativity, making a living, wondering if our lives will pan out, meditation, saving the world, and hairdos. Enjoy!

Susannah is a photographer, writer, and teacher. Her creations are an organic expression of her heart rather; a true artist. It was a pleasure to meet her in person a few months ago and now connect our worlds through this lovely and fun interview about creativity. Please enjoy! Click on her logo to read.

OR

Interview here!

Patti Digh, Jennifer Louden, and I are offering a one-day writing workshop in Portland, OR, on N ov 6. We want you to come. Or just win a prize. Or both!

The prize part:

We want to give you a chance to win goodies . We also want  you to come to Portland and bring your writer friends so we hope you will share this contest page with everyone you know who writes — or keeps meaning to.

You do not have to attend our Portland one day once in a lifetime writing retreat to enter this contest!

You could win one of the following:

Grand Prize:
Attend the retreat free! No, we can’t also fly you and rent a limo and pay for your hotel room but we will hug you extra hard. Details on the retreat are below. Yes,  you can give your winning golden ticket to someone else if you can’t make it. Yes, if you have already signed up we can refund all your hard earned monies.

First Prize
You could win 30 minutes of writing coaching with Susan Piver, Patti Digh, and Jen Louden. 3 separate sessions! Scheduled directly with each of us. 3 writers with a bizillion book and articles and blog posts between them helping you — one-on-one.

Second Prize
Mailed to your home-sweet-home, signed copies of The Life Organizer by Jennifer Louden, The Wisdom of a Broken Heart by Susan Piver, and Four-Word Self-Help by Patti Digh.  Your very own signed DiLopi collection.

Enter here

Retreat Details

I’m so excited to have the chance to teach with Jennifer Louden and Patti Digh! During the workshop, each of us will host a panel focusing on a particular aspect of the writing process. There will also be an “ask the writer” panel with all three of us, where we hope to offer helpful answers to questions about process, publishing, creativity, and whatever might come up.

I’m excited for you because we’ve planned an awesome day of teaching, dialogue, and hanging out. I’m convinced you’ll walk away more confident in your voice and inspired to use it.

I’m excited for me because they’re each wonderful writers, teachers, and all around excellent human beings and I look forward to working with them. Plus I’ve always taught alone and I’m really looking forward to collaborating. I love collaborating. Well, sometimes.

I’m excited for all of us because we’ll get to have the joy of camaraderie—which is often in short supply in this most solitary of artistic pursuits.

To support, inspire, provoke, and amuse you, we created a one-day workshop called Walking Into Fire: Sidestepping Fear, Writing Your Heart Out, and Letting Your Story Tell Itself. I think it’s pretty unique. If I weren’t in it, I’d want to take it.

Here is the schedule:

9:45-11:00 One Taste – Meditation, Creativity, and Joy: How Doing One of These Makes You Do All Three with Susan Piver

11:15-12:30 A Million Ways to Kiss Your Writing into Being with Jen Louden

LUNCH

1:30-2:45 Put Down Your Clever and Pick up Your Ordinary with Patti Digh

3:00-4:00 Writers: Take Your Mark or This is the Part Where We Write with Susan, Jen, and Patti

We will give you an hour of writing energy and prompts and fun that will blow you open to new material and give you clear jumping off places to keep writing. Stuck on a project – no more!

4:00 -5:00  Panel discussion w/ DiLoPi in which you lob your questions and we make up answers.

5:15-7:00 Book signing and cash bar cocktail party with the authors

If you have any questions or concerns, you must email me. You can also visit this page to get more details and to sign up. Sign up! You know you want to! Don’t give me any of that “but I’m not a writer” lip.

Register here

I promise you won’t regret it.